Montezuma, Iowa.
Typical home $291,229 (+10.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$902 (+144%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $27,649 +10%
- $263,580$291,229 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $75,778 +35%
- $215,451$291,229 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Montezuma$1,529
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Montezuma, IA rose 10.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Montezuma, Poweshiek County, Iowa
Montezuma is a city of 1,442 people in Poweshiek County. Half its households earn more than $65,660 a year and half less, against $67,391 across Poweshiek County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 59% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 41% are rented. Unemployment in Poweshiek County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Montezuma is a small city and the seat of Poweshiek County in central Iowa. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and homes are mostly lived in by their owners. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and the year brings a fair amount of rain.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. The largest workplaces in town include the Montezuma Comm School District, Sutherland Printing and Amwood Homes. Commutes are short, and few people work from home. Jobs across the county have dipped over the past year, though unemployment there is slightly lower than a year ago.
Things to do. Lake Keomah State Park is a protected area with a lake, a longer drive away. Rock Creek State Park is another protected area, also a longer drive away, and Lake Red Rock is a large reservoir at a similar distance. For an evening out, the Masonic Opera House is a theatre a longer drive away.
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- 660households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Poweshiek County had 9,222 jobs in 2025, 3.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Grinnell Southwest weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Montezuma
- Montezuma Comm School DistrictSchool district76FTE
- Sutherland PrintingOffset printing43
- Care Initiatives38
- Amwood HomesWood frame component fabrication on site21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 102 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Montezuma’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Poweshiek County.
Montezuma home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Montezuma$291,229
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Montezuma listings — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Montezuma23.10%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Montezuma53
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Montezuma10
Zip codes with a Montezuma address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Montezuma — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.